Halloween unrest hits Scottish cities as bricks and bottles thrown at police

Footage shows a group launching bottles at passing police vehicles as fire crews tackle a blaze.

Key Points
  • Female officer injured after vehicle window smashed with brick
  • 14-year-old boy charged has been arrested and charged in connection with fireworks offences in Edinburgh
  • Video shows bottles being launched at police vehicles in Dundee
  • Lothian Bus services in Edinburgh were withdrawn due to ‘anti-social behaviour’

A teenager has been charged after emergency services were deployed to the streets of two Scottish cities following reports of unrest on Halloween.

Officers locked down areas in Edinburgh and Dundee as groups of young people targeted police with fireworks and missiles.

Footage showed bottles being launched at passing police vehicles off Ulverston Terrace in the Kirkton area of Dundee.

The disorder took place on Thursday evening with firefighters spotted using a hose to extinguish a growing fire near a playpark.

Bus services in Edinburgh were withdrawn due to “anti-social behaviour”.

In the Hay Avenue area of the capital, officers and public transport were pelted with fireworks and missiles, including bricks.

A female officer was injured after a brick struck the vehicle she was in smashing a window.

A 14-year-old boy has been charged in connection with fireworks offences in Edinburgh.

The junction of Niddrie Mains Road and Duddingston Park South, and the junction of Niddrie Mains Road and Greendykes Road were closed as police attempted to quell the violence.

Police previously said on Thursday officers would be utilising Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act within Niddrie and Craigentinny as part of deterring firework-related crime.

Regarding the unrest in Edinburgh a police statement read: “We are responding to reports of disorder involving fireworks in the Hay Avenue area of Edinburgh.

“A number of people have targeted police vehicles and public transport providers with fireworks and missiles, including bricks.

“A road closure has been put in place at the junction of Niddrie Mains Road and Duddingston Park South, and the junction of Niddrie Mains Road and Greendykes Road.

“Local officers are being supported by public order colleagues to bring the matter under control.

“Please avoid the area.”

A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: “We were alerted at 9.11pm on Thursday, October 31 to reports of a fire in the open at Ulverston Terrace, Dundee.

“Operations Control mobilised one fire appliance and firefighters extinguished fire affecting a number of wheely bins.

“There were no reported casualties and crews left after ensuring the area was made safe.”

The incidents come a year after both Edinburgh and Dundee faced similar unrest.

Riot police were called to Beauly Avenue and Beauly Square in Kirkton as around 50 people were involved in disorder which saw fires seal of roads and wheelie bins ablaze on October 31, 2023.

In the Niddrie area of Edinburgh around 100 youths took to the same streets on November 5 in a repeat of the disorder seen in the same neighbourhood in 2022.

At the time it was reported that 62 officers sustained a range of injuries after being struck by or in the proximity of fireworks in incidents across Scotland last year.

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